All posts for the month August, 2015

Have you ever been in a situation where you’re all excited for a massive alcohol fuelled orgy with good ol’ Lucifer and the gang, but you can’t decide which album to spin? Then, I highly recommend UK based Wolfbastard’s self titled debut on UKEM Record. This filthy combination of black metal and crust punk is absolutely ideal for the situation. The record tosses the listener into 21 minutes of black metal meets d-beat frenzy. Wolfbastard’s music can be described as a rawer and more punky version of Impaled Nazarene.

The competition that exists between metal bands to be the fastest, most brutal and heaviest, can often be mundane and trivial. But sometimes, this competition gives rise to some fun output. Take the case of Subterror for example. This Brazilian trio’s debut, title ‘Antropomortum’ is a record that sticks to the usual ideas seen in death metal. The execution of it, however, makes this one of those albums that gets played over and over, because it is infectious fun. The crust punk elements that are added to the death metal here, makes Subterror sound like a grinding version of Bolt Thrower.

There seems to exist a weird fascination for monoliths among doom metal bands. With various sludge and doom metal bands talking about monoliths in their songs and a few bands sharing that name, this affinity between the two has existed for a while now. May be the sonic weight of doom riffs takes inspiration from the actual weight of monoliths. Or maybe the connection is based more on the mystifying aspect surrounding monolith as shown by H.P. Lovecraft in ‘Dagon’. Here we have a band called Behold! The Monolith and they play, sludge / doom metal. But unlike most of their peers, they don’t merely play music that is slow, heavy and crushing. On their third full length, ‘Architects of the Void’, they twist and bend the doom genre by incorporating elements from polarizing sub genres like thrash metal.

The end of the 1980’s was a very important period in the history of death metal. Bands where adding their own ideas to the traditional death metal sound and the genre itself grew in different directions. The Florida scene was a key area in this period as most of the influential bands originated from here. And speaking of influential bands, Nocturnus is name that is oft forgotten by today’s metalheads. It’s a shame, because this band is the reason we know keyboards can work in death metal and that science fiction elements can be combined occult themes to create a fascinating mix. The band’s debut ‘The Key’ turns 25 this month and even today, the album sounds fresh and entertaining.

‘Cold’ is the second EP by progressive sludge outfit OHHMS. OHHMS’s critically acclaimed EP ‘Gloom’ showcased a mix of post-metal, sludge, psych and stoner metal. Here, OHHMS experiment with the addition of a lot of new psychedelic and stoner elements. The EP consists of two tracks, spanning a total of 33 minutes.